. >> reporter: the school has topped the sierra clubs cool schools ranking. football games are now zero waste, everything is either recycled or composted. bicycles rule on campus, there's 10,000 of them. one for every three students. campus buses run on biodiesel. and the school chancellor tools around campus in a plug-in hybrid while solar power heats his university provided home. solar panels help power the campus, and water bottle refill stations cutdown on waste. >> as you can see, this one just since january has refilled 24,000 times, so that's 24,000 16-ounce plastic water bottles that we are not sending to the landfill. >> how long has the environmental center been around? >> 40 years on earth day. >> reporter: the center is governed by students and funded by students 100%. so the students here have voted with their wallets for 40 years. >> reporter: the recycling effort has turned into a profit center for the university, it's turning trash into cash. >> it's about a $15 per ton net benefit. so this particular model is working really well for us. >> th